Joanne Lauck

"Man cannot long separate himself from nature without withering as a cut rose in a vase." -Howard Thurman

I think of community as a circle. When we draw the circle too small, excluding others on the basis of race, nationality, or religious preference, our attempts to build community suffer. Our efforts also fall short when we exclude others on the basis of species or divide the Earth community into good and bad species and include only those we deem as good. Those divisions violate the fundamental unity of life and create artificial barriers that can only impede community-making.